Cooking in Costa Rica
SynopsisPlot
When you move to a Spanish-speaking country like Costa Rica, it can be daunting to stock your kitchen and cook meals when you do not know the names of your ingredients in Spanish. And, even when you know the Spanish translation, it can be a challenge to find what you are looking for. Gloria Yeatman, Costa Rica expat, blogger, and co-creator of the popular website "Retire for Less in Costa Rica," has created a combination English/Spanish food dictionary, cookbook, shopping guide to make the transition easier.
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About this book
Moving to a new country means learning to navigate its markets, kitchens, and food vocabulary. Cooking in Costa Rica, by Gloria Yeatman, is a practical reference for English speakers who have relocated to Costa Rica and need to identify ingredients, utensils, and kitchen items in Costa Rican Spanish. The book combines an English-to-Spanish food dictionary with recipes and shopping guidance, addressing the specific gap between knowing a word in textbook Spanish and finding the actual product on a local shelf.
Yeatman, herself an expatriate living in Costa Rica and co-creator of the website Retire for Less in Costa Rica, built the guide from direct experience with the country's markets and grocery stores. Costa Rican Spanish carries its own regional vocabulary for produce, cuts of meat, and cooking tools, which can differ from the Spanish used in Mexico or Spain. The dictionary section of the book aims to cover these local terms rather than offering only standard translations.
The cookbook portion gives readers a way to put that vocabulary into practice with recipes suited to ingredients available in Costa Rica. The book functions as both a language tool and a kitchen companion for daily use.
